Ideal Spaces with Barbican Art Gallery

The London art scene 2011-2041 - a history by Rational Rec

On Thursday 24 March 2011, Rational Rec presented Ideal Spaces with Barbican Art Gallery, responding to the Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition (3 March-22 May 2011). The subtitle of the show, Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970’s made us think about the curatorial and archival decisions in framing these artists in this way, in a specific time and place, and about Rational Rec’s participation in, and shaping of, our own ‘scene’.

Rational Rec (and many other contributors) were invited by Barbican to curate an event because we are part of the contemporary London scene. The exhibition events programme uses this idea of a London scene to help their audience understand what an art scene feels like and how it can be experienced, both aware of and working against the reductive tendency of museum shows.

We invited each of the artists making an event during the exhibition to tell us how they felt about being selected as a representative of the London art scene, and to describe their scene for us. These responses inspired a short talk, set in 2041, tracing the history of the London art scene from 2011 onwards - looking at changes in education, practice, funding, social regeneration, environment and technology, as well as specific changes within different artforms.

There were also presentations by artists Ruth Beale and Neal White about their own scenes and responses to the show.

The responses were mapped over the exhibition, providing an alternative look at the complexity of London’s art communities and networks, which we turned into a tour of the show.